Asia Sentinel

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The latest disaster to hit Chinese foodstuffs could drive up imports sharply

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What nation plays it best?

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Vast new North American supplies will have a dramatic impact on the world economy

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As an official 'evil,' prostitutes are at the mercy of corrupt officials, says Human Rights Watch

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But vast reserves should see them through at a lower growth rate

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If the US President gets it wrong, what will North Korea do?

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A former high-profile pessimist does an about-face on US economic decline

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Fending off a list of disasters

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The world's salesmen, take note

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Evidence suggests killer landslide was manmade

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A beachhead grows for commerce

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European Parliament study says China catches 12 times as many fish as it says

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Chinese writer on the impossibility of being optimistic

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The shift to urban living in Asia is unprecedented in speed and scale

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Hard-fought goal for Beijing's leaders

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Not in This Century

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A tale of three cities

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A spy mission that went awry a decade ago could presage new tensions

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South Africa summit shows up group's weaknesses

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Swamped by Chinese and other "entrepreneurs," Ottawa Rejiggers its Program

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New Internet letter calls for China to sign International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

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Productivity rises, developing world keep things going

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Tough job...

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To lead on Asian disputes, the US must combine diplomacy and embrace of UNCLOS

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It's too early to tell

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Recession, corruption investigations slowing sales only slightly

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A religious figure comes into his own as artist and green activist

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Diverse innovation on climate protection could build support for global treaty

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The latitude for action on the part of all the parties is limited

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Covert "financing vehicles" face hundreds of billions of debt

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The odds are long and the prognosis isn't good

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Two-week conclave ready to set framework for the new era

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If this century should be an "Asian Century," it risks being unraveled by the ongoing South China Sea disputes

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Singapore: China's Population Laboratory Experiment

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Former US diplomat Stapleton Roy warns against strategic confrontation between Washington and Beijing

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New holiday rules seek to drive up consumption

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Smog enveloping China's cities could be a metaphor for its dangerous, unsustainable growth

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The WTO prepares for yet another round of futile negotiations

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Behind the recent hacking of foreign news outlets is a massive censorship machine

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The numbers smell cooked, says a respected economist

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China will be No. 1. What are the implications?

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America should worry about losing its technological leadership

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Not very

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Disastrous air pollution said to be killing thousands

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The world faces another 17 years of potentially growing emissions from China's industries

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China's new ties with Maldives, Seychelles, Sri Lanka sink India's influence over Indian Ocean

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The strategic trends say the more things change the more they'll stay the same

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Probably not. But there will be plenty of sturm und drang

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The Economist says they're Chinese

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But report by Global Financial Integrity may be misstating the case

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Rising discrimination and denial of human rights are troubling

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Blame it all on Ulysses S. Grant

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Across the planet, things look a bit disturbing

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Look for 10 years of falling prices, economists say

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Combating corruption no longer lip service

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Next step. Hawaii

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Full benefits of globalization can't be realized if leaders neglect global governance

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Revelations that Beijing intends to stop and board maritime vessels entering its territory in the disputed South China Sea were predictably poorly received by fellow claimant states.

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Don't blame globalization for inequality--but rather policies hijacked by a few

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China's intention to print new passports depicting its ownership of disputed maritime territories in the South China Sea has riled its neighbors.

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Muddled thinking: the hard road ahead

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World Bank, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Seek to "wake up the world"

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Self-immolations increase

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Xi Jinping is cast as a reformer. But the job may be bigger than he is.

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But it may be too little and too late: Ask Sandy's victims

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President Obama once again finds himself at the helm of a divided nation and an uncooperative Congress

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Major new economic plan seeks to address income disparities

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Government tolerates freedom of expression, and the Burmese target Chinese investments

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It's economics rather than love, study says

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For the US, its "pivot" to Asia is all about jobs and bringing some of those jobs from China back to America.

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Closing off markets does not protect after crises

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Growing numbers of Chinese go online, unafraid to say they deserve better leadership

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New report says nearly US$4 trillion disappeared – 10 percent of GDP

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Asia will benefit if China shifts from reliance on exports towards consumption-led growth

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Is it a menace for China and the global economy?

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Climate change or no climate change, crude production is going up spectacularly

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Nations ignore the addiction to fossil fuels – and climate change – at their peril

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IFPRI says the Global Hunger Index has improved, but challenges are enormous

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US turns a suspicious eye to Chinese foreign direct investment

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A fast-growing China faces growing headwinds

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Slow growth could help China’s economy, but hurt mining, supply chain and investors

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The strains of headlong growth start to take their toll

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Climate change's effect grows worse

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Chinese investors invest in French vineyards – with their own ideas on success

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Part III of our excerpt from Tombstone, Yang Jisheng’s history of Mao's Great Famine

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Asia Sentinel presents Part II of our excerpts from Tombstone, the history of the starvation deaths of 36 million people in China’s Great Leap Forward. This except from the final chapter details bickering that led to the “four clean ups,” the campaign to cleanse the bureaucracy of "reactionary" elements, including by sending government officials and intellectuals to the countryside to learn from peasants.

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Beijing planners risk undershooting 2012 growth targets

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Asia Sentinel is privileged to present excerpts from Tombstone, the magisterial history of the starvation deaths of 36 million people in China’s Great Leap Forward. In this except from the final chapter, author Yang Jisheng details how Mao’s stubbornness in defending the Great Leap Forward would precipitate the equally murderous Cultural Revolution

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What will the next US President do, whoever he is?

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Can incoming premier Li Keqing fill Wen Jiabao's shoes, or more importantly, those of Zhu Rongji?

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Is this a necessary irritant between the US and China?

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The US must reinforce its ties to regional allies and partners, so as to strengthen its position in the region

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Why isn't the western press more outraged?

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Tsunami of Global Crime

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But getting there is going to be very difficult

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And develops a cruise missile to supplement its seagoing arsenal

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The Ryukyu island chain gets into the act over the Diaoyu/Senkakus

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Weibo's posters are fierce in tackling China's challenges

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For Chinese students, the myth of Harvard inspires dreams of success and criticism of the status quo.

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As tensions rise between Beijingers and expats, Chinese xenophobia comes into focus

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For sustainability's sake, the US must save more, China must spend more

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Hope resides in the developing economies

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Latest moves seem more likely to aggravate domestic, world problems

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It's pushing hard, but the picture is mixed.

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Populations pressures, degraded land, water scarcity, other problems may get in the way

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While June elections were inconclusive, the one clear issue driving votes was corruption

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Spies multiply like coathangers in China and the US

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Faced with the prospect of downsizing its military, the United States must adjust accordingly if it hopes to carry out its foreign policy objectives

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There's plenty of it in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave as well

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In particular, how will Asia fare?

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Want a 330-km McLaren? Come to Hong Kong, but you’ll have to hold it down

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Probably not in our lifetime

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Seeking global clout, China’s position on sanctity of sovereignty evolves

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As world population increases, how will agriculture have to change?

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A hypothetical look at how US indecisiveness over the South China Sea can lead to military conflict

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Dual-use technology sales appear to abrogate a leaky arms embargo

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US foreign policy inconsistent in recognizing Israel’s and China’s claims to territory

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Beijing appears to be waiting for the 14th Dalai Lama to die

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Will Asia mimic bankrupt Western ideas, fall victim to hubris – or generate new, sustainable visions?

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ADB says maybe no, maybe yes. It’s up in the air

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You thought you knew. But just how conspicuous is surprising

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Dysfunctional governments in China, India and the US trigger dangerous populism and inequality

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Lots of other mariners were there first

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With "financing vehicles" to evade deficit bans, study says, local governments went wild over the last four years

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Besieged by factions, China's leaders struggle with succession, reforms and worried foreign investors

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A new form of colonization, infrastructure, political and climate problems aside

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Rebuilding the World Order isn’t going to happen

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The much-feared rise of the Chinese currency may be coming to a close, giving American politicians a breather

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But with very little success

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Huge and growing problem partly driven by the inflated cost of authentic ones

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Is the US focus on Asia a first step away from being a global power?

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Both needs the other

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China's princelings, the mafia and a flamboyant leader's downfall

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Scientists seek to develop a hardy, high-yielding rice to feed the earth’s growing billions

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To some extent, yes. But a research firm’s reports say in the long run it’s still up to the Communist Party

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Aging population and poverty require stronger investment in China's rural youth

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A US student collects the words that you can't use on China’s Twitter

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Should China wish to find its place in the world peacefully, its actions must reflect its intentions.

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A website's exhaustive research exposes organized crime links

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A spectacular scam bares the foundation of illegality of the enclave's casinos

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A token foreigner finds his way as a one-off pitchman in the People's Republic

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Knicks phenom joins Michael Jordan, Apple and others in losing his name to a Chinese company

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Keeping the peace in Asia means working together, even with those you would rather not.

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Stephen Harper moderates his human rights stance, wins trade deals -- and pandas

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US-China relations require incremental steps. For now at least, slow and steady may be the only option.

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US presidential candidates rail about China’s unfair trade practices – then backtrack once in power

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Instability peaks as Beijing cracks down

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Isolation, poverty loom for an aging population

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From Confucius to cable TV, China mobilizes all resources to win hearts and minds

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Harnessing the Internet to bring help to the needy

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A focus on international cooperation can come at the expense of Canadian national interests

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Is there a future China as a superpower?

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Thirsty for oil, China spurns the West’s call for sanctions on Iran

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As the US dithers, other countries make combating climate change a goal

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US$97 billion could be put to better use than sitting in the Cupertino vaults

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Ratio of raw materials usage to GDP could start to level

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The Wukan event reveals the mounting challenges to China’s authoritarian resilience

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Rising expectations in the face of increasing competition

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Far more consumed than is produced in all of France

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How much is the United States willing to commit in protecting its interests and the region's?

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The west, Japan begin to lose their exclusive lead

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The credibility of a country is also measured by its health risk assessment

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Once beaten for his activism, he works within the system

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Greed or incompetence results in tragic losses of lives, ships, cargoes

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Chinese authorities ignore attempts to call attention to their despotism in Tibet

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Protesters around the globe connect, lashing out at inequality, cronyism and dysfunctional governments

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Political ramifications in government’s refusal

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A sleepy Guangdong fishing village spurs an extraordinary protest

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Policymakers may have hit the brakes too hard

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Headline figures mask rising problems

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The question of who will lead Asia is about as big

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Three years after one of China’s worst food scandals, a major dairy company returns to Hong Kong

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How would the Republican contenders for the US presidency treat Asia?

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Global Times plays bad cop to the Party’s good cop

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China on the back foot

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Why the South China Sea disputes suddenly matter, and why it doesn’t matter? The real question at hand is how a small, global community makes room for a booming village. It’s time to stop thinking narrowly and start dreaming big.

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Without US direct support and commitment, prospective security alliances in the Pacific are a wasted effort.

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Sending armed escorts won’t assuage fears of Chinese assertiveness or expansionism.

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Are they finally starting to show their faces?

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The US, caught in economic crisis, can’t retreat into isolationism

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Scandals, longtime cultural beliefs curtail blood supplies

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Regular and effective hand-washing is important for public health

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An unprecedented series of suicides erodes Beijing’s repressive policies, hinting at a new wave of unrest

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World’s best and brightest are less keen to study, work or stay in the US

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Asia’s newly rich countries must take charge

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China’s communists ambiguous about Double Ten celebration

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A new report says it’s happening, but the global economy could reverse it.

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China not only wants nothing to do with a bailout, Europe doesn’t need it.

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Critics say the rice uses double the nitrogen of other varieties, poisoning the land

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As the EU wrestles with division, China looks for opportunities

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But World Bank reports there’s a long way to go, Muslim women mostly falling behind

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Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide?

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COSCO Blocks a Brazilian Ore Carrier from Dalian

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Beijing overtakes the EU in bilateral trade

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No soft power here

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Economic downturn drives China’s biggest shipper to renege on dry bulk contracts

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Vague agendas, US weakness on display

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China’s cheeky Dagong Global Credit downgrades the US, upgrades the developing world.

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But lots of problems remain that could add to price volatility, World Bank says

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While concerned about US monetary policy, the Chinese can’t discern one at all in Europe

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Resolving the debt crisis won’t solve the bigger problems

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It may not matter

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New reports say the effects are starting to ripple across society

To sway Pyongyang, China does what nations do – follow its own interests

China discards its athletes after their usefulness fades

On July 18, Asia Sentinel printed a story on how China’s construction of major dams is causing chaos in Burma. This is why they are going ahead despite opposition.

Monks seek support in Washington, DC

President demonstrates considerable flexibility in balancing strategic relationships

Murdoch’s wife paid $300,000 for ill-fated role

District Kangbashi, designed for more than a million inhabitants, is still empty even five years after its construction

Photos show the old boy's stil interested

Decline spells trouble for the Chinese economy

China rejects UN treaty by asserting sovereignty over the South China Sea

{mosimage}

Struggle session recalls bad old days

{mosimage}…but where's the money going?

{mosimage}Our correspondent travels through Xinjiang in the wake of July riots

{mosimage}Ex-President Jiang's unexpected reappearance spells trouble for Hu Jintao – and for political stability in China

{mosimage}Chinese functionary likely to be followed to jail by others

{mosimage}The massacre gains mention in an official newspaper on June 4. Why?

{mosimage}Tiananmen anniversary puts an end to microblogging

{mosimage}Politics gets in the way China's pursuit of the Australian mining giant

{mosimage}Sixteen pages of interviews involving the 1989 massacre abruptly vanish

{mosimage}Thousands of rioters attack Chinese businesses, illegals across the country

{mosimage}Pioneer magazine becomes must-read for those in business

{mosimage}What Hong Kongers probably shouldn't do,or maybe already did 

{mosimage}Beijing continues to see a role for gold in world finance

{mosimage}There's less than meets the eye to the investment banks' excitement over the Chinese economy

{mosimage}A flagging system gets a massive jab that it may find hard to handle

{mosimage}Koreans lead an influx of foreigners into the Middle Kingdom

{mosimage}Rags to riches to rags to riches to rags to riches

{mosimage}A nice idea, but hell will freeze over first

{mosimage}Do state subsidies support a huge Oz acquisition?

{mosimage}An ambitious plan to bring quality care to China runs into trouble

{mosimage}Foreign investment sentiment starts to blow cold in Oz

{mosimage}The Chinese and Tibetans look at March 10 with foreboding

{mosimage}China's top carmaker loses US$500 million in Korean investment

{mosimage}Hu Jintao on a mission

{mosimage}"Pillars of the state" crumble from corruption

{mosimage}But there are questions whether Beijing gets it when it comes to professional journalism

{mosimage}China's imports collapse tells an ominous story for its trade partners

{mosimage}A surprising number of Chinese business leaders’ wives share in the larceny

{mosimage}Concerns grow about distorted investment goals

{mosimage}China's currency isn't about to replace the US dollar as a fiat currency any time soon

{mosimage}A newly resurgent military ponders aircraft carriers

{mosimage}Startling new economic figures could spell trouble for Beijing

{mosimage}Beijing cancels a longstanding meeting with the EU over the Dalai Lama

{mosimage}Beijing shows the US how to go about building a rescue package

{mosimage}Citic Pacific’s management survives a huge loss

{mosimage}China's leadership stakes its future on reforming incomes in the countryside

{mosimage}Beijing wants to focus resources on investing at home – an unwise idea

{mosimage}If the world is to avoid a trade war, Obama must avoid naming China a currency manipulator

{mosimage}Stung by rising food imports, Beijing liberalizes its rural land ownership laws

{mosimage}China becomes a reluctant banker to mop up western profligacy

I have been a professional journalist for three years but before August 9 the most famous person I had ever interviewed was the inventor of the dog toothbrush.

With security tight, reporters looking for dissent at the Beijing Olympics have a tough time

In its drive for food, China is planting deep roots in foreign fields

Unsold inventories are climbing, the consumers aren’t biting

A Beijing-based expat laments an increasingly strait-laced city

The Chinese leadership worries that public disaffection with the police could undermine Olympic security

Beijing’s intrusions into government computers across the planet — most recently in India — are illegal and outrageous

How the west was won on China’s Islamic frontier

Beset by overseas demonstrations and trouble in its restive western provinces, China’s leaders retreat into mass mobilization

Growing up under China’s tough family planning rules had its benefits

Beijing's one-child policy resulted in a demographic powder keg

Tibet’s unrest could be just the beginning of trouble for Beijing’s attempt to sell a good Olympic vision of itself to the world and corporate sponsors

Strongman’s Olympic glory is already tarnished by the unrest 

America’s favorite pastime finds its way to the Middle Kingdom

The US decision to divert food crops for motor-fuel is proving a costly mistake – especially for Asia

Beijing will take no chances on dissidents, the distressed or anything else disrupting its games

Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong has little hope of release from a mainland prison  nearly three years after his arrest

Outfitted in full-slink and on the prowl, our correspondent finds few spenders amid the excess of a Chinese big-money expo

An industry beset by recalls and manufacturing chaos tries to kiss and make up with a wary public

Beijing forsakes the market for the old command economy

Hu Protégé Li Keqiang gets an edge on a rival with key finance portfolio

Employers may find China’s tough new labor law hard to evade

The PetroChina A Share Float makes us think of Russia at its oligarchic best

Hu Jintao’s potential successor emerges from Shanghai party

As prices rise in China, the effects will be felt in the West

Step into your lederhosen and yodel your way to China

By James Millward
476 pp, US$40
Columbia University Press/Hurst &Co., London

Elusive to define but pervasive in its influence, Taoism is on the rise again in modern China.

After breaking the Shanghai Gang, China’s president now goes after the Beijing Faction

Beijing’s nervous leaders let two democracy activists out of the country in an uneasy show of benevolence

It was a great picture and an irresistible story, but the saga of China’s nail house was more complicated than the media – Western and Chinese – let on. We can thank bloggers for digging into the reality.

The Chinese premier’s visit to Tokyo indicates a desire to play by the rules and tolerate ambiguity for the sake of diplomacy.

A former shirtless cement mixer is the latest property tycoon to emerge from the shadows as Country Garden Holdings gets ready for a massive Hong Kong listing. Not to worry, he has a lot of very well-known friends.

Look at the numbers without the hype and it will be awhile before 1.3 billion still-poor Chinese outspend the American consumer

Zhao Ziyang’s thoughts, available in a new book, point to his vision of change in China. The deposed Party Chief supported more elections, party democracy, and accountability

Without his protector, a disgraced Chinese Vice-Admiral who knows all, tells all

In China, justice too often depends on who you don’t know any longer as a former Shanghai tycoon is finding out

 Another devastating Boxing Day earthquake exposes the lack of infrastructure depth in Asia

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